Aesop was a slave who lived, we think, around 260 B.C., and he was a Dallas Cowboys' prophet.
A sentence written in Aesop's Fables includes the line, "Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!"
Your dream, as a Dallas Cowboys fan, was that Jerry Jones was no longer the big man in charge of your favorite football team.
That day, and that dream, are unofficially here.
And you're still just as unhappy.
Jerry is a spry 79, but with each passing day it's more evident his son, Stephen Jones, runs the franchise.
They are blood, but they are not the same.
Jerry "won" by running into a burning building not with a pail of water but with a gas can and a match.
Stephen runs into a burning building with a fire truck, a team of fire fighters and an expert in forensics.
Stephen is far more calculating, cerebral and, comparatively speaking, boring. (In Stephen's defense, Kanye West is boring compared to Jerry Jones.)
The NFL Draft starts Thursday night, and this is an area of late the Dallas Cowboys have done well. Give Stephen and player personnel director Will McClay their due. Their "dull" approach to the draft has yielded winners.
Stephen Jones is not a fool. He has been groomed to be the leader of the Dallas Cowboys since the day his dad bought the team in 1989.
In conversations with former players, and staffers, the underlying criticism of the Dallas Cowboys is not Jerry, nor is it Stephen.
The criticism is their priority, and comfort.
The priorities of the Dallas Cowboys are unlike those of any other franchise in sports today. The Dallas Cowboys are essentially an entertainment company that happens to operate a football team.
No other leadership in sports is as fractured time wise like the Cowboys.
How many GMs of other NFL teams spend time away from the NFL Combine to promote a boxing match, the way Jerry did in March to hype the Errol Spence Jr. fight against Yordenis Ugas?
How many other NFL GMs take time out of their day to announce a business deal with a cryptocurrency company, the way Jerry did earlier this spring?
How many other NFL GMs create time to promote a rock concert, and other events, with the same enthusiasm as Jerry will when the team discusses their first-round draft pick on Thursday at The Star?
Start with zero.
The Cowboys love being the Cowboys, because why wouldn't they? Being among the ownership group of the Dallas Cowboys is more fun than any narcotic, prescribed or not.
The fame. The money. The adulation. The money. The attention. The money. The money.
What's not to love?
Until the priority is football, and just winning games, don't expect the results to dramatically change much when Stephen is the final say on all things Dallas Cowboys.
Because they don't have to.
This is not like 1989, when a 46-year-old Jerry bought the team and he was leveraged to his hairline.
The Cowboys had to win then, so the pressure started with Jerry and trickled down to the ball boy.
Today?
The Cowboys are so profitable they don't need to do anything other than print T-shirts, hats and open another Cowboys Club somewhere in DFW.
It's not like anyone is losing their job.
Of course they want to win, but the priority is to be interesting. The priority is to be entertaining.
No team does interesting like the Dallas Cowboys, so the results are negligible to their bottom line.
In less than five months the Cowboys have had a head coach openly questioned by the owner; a long-time team employee accused of peeping on cheerleaders, which resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement; a handful of questionable player personnel decisions that filled air time; the owner involved in a paternity suit; a player involved in a drive-by shooting.
In 2022, that's entertainment.
The win-loss results for the Dallas Cowboys, this century, have been OK. Not bad. Not great. Not good enough.
Unlike most teams that have had multiple good seasons since 2000, the Dallas Cowboys have had not one special run in the playoffs.
The team's playoff futility is well documented, and routinely ripped.
There is nothing to believe the way the team looks now that will change in 2022.
Under Jerry, and now Stephen, the Dallas Cowboys are a brilliantly run entertainment company whose portfolio features a fun little football team.
Those who fantasized of someone other than Jerry running the Dallas Cowboys are getting what they want.
The thought processes between Jerry and Stephen differ, but their priorities are the same.
Which makes them the Dallas Cowboys.
